The Puritan Guilt in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Society Essay

The Puritan Guilt in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Society Essay

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The time was the nineteenth century, a time of great prudishness in America but born a man Nathaniel Hawthorne that would put the Puritan society and their way to the test. A Puritan is one who follows the English Protestant lifestyle and someone who adheres to strict religious principle; also one who has a strong regard for pleasure sex and nudity. (Webster’s Dictionary, 2003) Born on July 4th 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts and of Puritan decent himself, Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family experienced intense harassment during their time.(Hoeljte, pps 25-26) Experiences that today make Hawthorne not only a great author, but very well liked by readers as well. Nathaniel attended a prestigious school with the aid of wealthy family…show more content…

Many of Hawthorne’s works deal with religion and his characters often have to struggle with their beliefs. It could be suggested that Hawthorne too was not comfortable in his religion and in ways renounced it through his writing. Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime. The child is born and Hester is forced to sew an “A” for adultery into her dress. This is too shame her and make her feel guilty about her crime. Hester is

The Guilt of Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter
God does not like the sin of adultery. He does not like lying. He does not like hypocrisy. There are two roads that one can choose. In the end, what may seem like the easy way may have far greater consequences than the hard way. Arthur Dimmesdale chose the easy path and learned that the pain of guilt is far greater than the pain of shame.
From the start, Dimmesdale did not want to live with the consequence of his sin. To begin with, he…

Guilt, shame, and penitence are just a few of the emotions that are often associated with a great act of sin. Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale, a highly respected minister of a 17th century Puritan community, is true example of this as he was somehow affected by all of these emotions after committing adultery. Due to the seven years of torturous internal struggle that finally resulted in his untimely death, Mr. Dimmesdale is the character who suffered the most throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter…

children. Puritans, as it turns out, are skilled in the nomenclature of rejection, up to and including the child of an adulteress. Pearl Prynne, named for her worth to a mother who sacrificed everything for her daughter, is one such receiver of unjust criticism in her society. At first glance an unruly or even wicked girl, Hester’s daughter reveals herself to be the personification of excellence in the eyes of her literary creator. Through the portrayal of The Scarlet Letter’s Pearl, Nathaniel Hawthorne…

Hester's Deconstruction of Puritan Ideals
Hester, the protagonist in Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, effectively challenges the efforts of the Puritan theocracy to define her, and at the same time, contain the threat she poses to the social order.
Throughout the novel Hester bears the mark of an "A" embroidered on her chest which was originally intended to label her as a social outcast, more specifically an adulteress to the rest of society. She wears the "A" for many…

Sinfulness of the Puritans in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne brings to The Scarlet Letter a notion of sin and guilt that seems to stem from his experience and knowledge of Puritan theology and religious practice. In "The Custom House" Hawthorne communicates his apprehension for the persecutory impulses of his ancestors who "have mingled their earthly substance with the soil, until no small portion of it must necessarily be akin to the moral frame wherewith, for a little…

The Scarlet Letter - Hester Prynne as Puritan Victim
In the first several chapters of The Scarlet Letter we can understand Hester Prynne to be a good but misunderstood soul. Labeled as an adulteress, she is the victim of the Puritan lifestyle. A person with many positive traits, she is treated as a terrible person for one unholy act. Far from the evil woman that some of her neighbors see, Hester is a strong, proud and loyal person who resists the worst influences of her community.…

Guilt as Reparation for Sin in The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is a novel about a Puritan woman who has committed adultery and must pay for her sin by wearing a scarlet “A'; on her bosom. The woman, Hester Prynne, must struggle through everyday life with the guilt of her sin. The novel is also about the suffering that is endured by not admitting to one’s wrongs. Reverend Mister Dimmesdale learns that secrecy only makes the guilt increase. Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to display…

Puritan Hypocrisy Exposed in The Scarlet Letter
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne repeatedly portrays the Puritanical views of sin and evil. The Puritans are constantly displayed as believing that evil comes from an unyielding bond being formed between love and hate. For such reasons they looked towards Hester's commitment of adultery as an action of pure, condemned evil. However, through the use of light and dark imagery, Hawthorne displays who truly holds evil in their…

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born into a family that possessed prominent Puritan ancestors, and the shame he experienced as a result of their actions, as well as his odd fascination with them, had a significant impact on his life and his writings. Though it would be an overstatement to say that Hawthorne's knowledge of the Puritan way of life was his only source of inspiration, this knowledge was certainly influential as it is often reflected in the majority of his work. Born in Salem, Massachusetts…

The scarlet letter is a symbol of guilt with the power to transform not only its wearer, but everyone involved in its inaugural scandal. Pearl and the letter share a certain relationship, and at times seem to mirror each other, as they exhibit similar tendencies. As children of indignity alike, they unconsciously serve as emotional grim reapers, and together, they unwillingly carry out the supernatural mandate of punishment rationed to them through sadistic and demoniac means. Because the two chosen…